The Cozy Starter

Local food pros unveil simple ways to take traditional fare from good to great.
By Elizabeth Turner
GARY MOSS
Chefs. They can be just like us: They’re happy to cook a Thanksgiving turkey in one of those
oven bags from the supermarket, and they like their holiday pie with a side of vanilla bean ice cream.
But then they’ll pivot and do something spectacular, like roasting winter squash on an aromatic bed
of fresh sage or pimping out a pecan pie with whipped cream rosettes and crispy crumbled bacon.
Best of all, they’re generous and willing to share their wisdom and creativity with the rest of us.
Read on for some serious kitchen advice and recipes for November’s No. 1 feast.
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STEAM: © RAMBOLIN/ISTOCK.COM; SAGE: © SOPHIA VAN DEN HOEK/STOCKSY UNITED; SQAUSH: GARY MOSS; CHIVES: © CLAUDIA LOMMEL/STOCKSY UNITED;
TURKEY: © BHOFACK2/ISTOCK.COM; CARVING SET, WHISK, AND PIECRUST: © DARREN MUIR/STOCKSY UNITED; PEARS © GABRIEL BUCATARU/STOCKSY UNITED
The Cozy Starter
BUTTERNUT AND KABOCHA SQUASH SOUP
WITH FRIED LEEK TOPPING
Serves 6 to 8
Emily Harwell, of Valley Soup Mama (valleysoupmama.com),
a homemade soup delivery service in Los Olivos, swears by
this velvety blend of butternut and kabocha squash. It’s easy
to make, and it will taste even better if made a day or two
ahead. For best results, make the Fried Leek Topping the day
of the feast.
SOUP
1 butternut and 1 kabocha squash (2½ pounds
combined), unpeeled, sliced lengthwise, and seeded
Olive oil, for brushing squash
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 leek, quartered lengthwise, white and light green
parts thinly sliced (1½ cups)
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water, or more if needed
2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 thinly sliced fresh sage leaves
1 bay leaf
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sour cream, for garnish
PEAR AND CINNAMON COCKTAIL WITH BOURBON
AND CORIANDER HONEY
Makes 6 drinks
Get the party started with a seasonally inspired drink recipe from
Alberto Battaglini, bar manager and mixologist at S.Y. Kitchen
(sykitchen.com) in Santa Ynez.
4½ ounces honey
27 dried coriander seeds
4½ very ripe peeled pears, each halved lengthwise
Dried cinnamon for muddling and garnish
18 ounces bourbon
9 ounces lemon juice
2¼ ounces pine liqueur, such as Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur
of the Alps, optional
5 dried figs, such as black Mission figs, sliced or halved
Ice
Twenty-four hours before serving time, combine honey and coriander
seeds in a small bowl. Muddle, and allow ingredients to infuse overnight in
an airtight container. Remove coriander seeds before assembling drinks.
To assemble each drink: Place a pear half in cocktail shaker, sprinkle
lightly with cinnamon, and muddle. Add 3 ounces bourbon, 1½ ounces
lemon juice, ¾ ounce (about 1½ tablespoons) coriander-infused honey,
³⁄ 8 ounce (about 2¼ teaspoons) pine liqueur, and ice. Shake well, double
strain into a glass, and garnish with a dried fig and sprinkle of cinnamon.
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment
paper. Brush cut sides of squashes with oil, and place
facedown on sheet. Bake until squashes are soft to the touch,
about 25 minutes, depending on size. Allow to cool, then peel.
Over medium heat, melt butter in Dutch oven or heavybottomed pot. Add leek and 1 teaspoon salt, and cook until
leek starts to brown, stirring occasionally. Add squash pieces
to pot. Add broth, 1 cup water, thyme sprigs, sage, bay
leaf, and cayenne pepper. Increase heat, bring mixture to a
simmer, and cook about 15 minutes.
Remove and discard thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Working in
batches, puree soup in blender or use an immersion blender,
until smooth. If necessary, thin soup with water for desired
consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
To make topping: Toss sliced leek in flour with a pinch of
salt and pepper.
Heat oil in 12-inch skillet, add half of the sliced leek, and fry
until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon,
transfer fried leek slices to paper towel-lined sheet pan. Sprinkle
with salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with remaining leek slices.
To serve, ladle soup into bowls, and top each serving with
fried leek slices and a dollop of sour cream.
GARY MOSS
Raise a Glass
FRIED LEEK TOPPING
1 leek, quartered lengthwise, white and light green
parts thinly sliced (1½ cups)
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch salt and pepper, plus more, to finish, to taste
½ cup olive oil
GARY MOSS
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Sage Advice
Savory, slightly peppery sage is
a classic ingredient in holiday
stuffing, but there are other
ways to weave this fall favorite
into the menu.
The Fried Sage Garnish If serving a dish
that includes sage in the flavor profile (like
the Butternut and Kabocha Squash Soup
on page 68), consider garnishing it with
crispy fried sage leaves, suggests Emily
Harwell, aka Soup Mama. To make them,
heat ½ cup olive oil in a 12-inch skillet, drop
in a few sage leaves at a time, fry for about
15 seconds, then remove to a paper towellined baking sheet to drain. Sprinkle with
sea salt before serving.
Sweet Potatoes with Sage Brown Butter
Francesco Pesce, chef de cuisine at
Mediterraneo (med-rest.com) at the
Westlake Village Inn, recommends making
a sage brown butter for whipped sweet
potatoes. For eight people, gradually heat
4 tablespoons of butter in a pan and add
8 fresh sage leaves. “You will see the butter
change color as it heats up,” Pesce says.
When it starts to smell nutty and turn light
brown, take the pan off the heat, let it cool
slightly, and carefully remove and discard
the sage leaves. Mix the brown butter
and the zest of 1 lemon into 3 pounds of
mashed boiled sweet potatoes.
Compound Butter For another twist on
sage butter, whip chopped fresh sage leaves
into room-temperature butter. “Add a little
sea salt to brighten up the flavor,” suggests
chef Adrian Giese, executive chef at
Mastro’s Restaurants (mastrosrestaurants.
com). “You can rechill the butter or serve
it slightly soft at the table so it’s easy to
spread.” Try tucking ¼-inch pats of this
butter between the skin and the breast of
the turkey before roasting it, he adds.
Sage-Roasted Delicata Squash Giese loves
to roast half moons of delicata squash on a
bed of sage. Delicata has a thin, edible skin
that’s much easier to cut than butternut.
Halve the squash lengthwise, remove the
seeds, and cut it into ½-inch-thick half
moons. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cover
a rimmed baking sheet with fresh sage
leaves, lay each piece of squash on one
side, flesh down over the leaves, and roast
for 30 to 35 minutes. “You get a nice
golden-brown crust on the squash, and
they give way on the inside to a tender,
sweet flavor,” Giese says. He also suggests
cherry-picking a few crispy leaves from the
roasting pan to garnish the finished dish.
H ot t i p :
“If you’re
brining, do
not resalt the
turkey before
you put it in
the oven.”
—Phil Kastel,
vice president of culinary
and executive chef,
The Grill on the Alley
Turkey Tips
OPPOSITE: GARY MOSS; THIS PAGE: © DARREN MUIR/STOCKSY UNITED
Everybody Brines Elaine Andersen Morello, co-founder with husband Alberto Morello
of Olio e Limone Ristorante, Olio Pizzeria, and Olio Crudo Bar (oliocucina.com)
restaurants in Santa Barbara and Westlake Village, favors a wet brine with an Italian
twist. “We use Sicilian sea salt only (no dried herbs) and filtered water, and the large
brining bags you can get from Sur la Table,” she says. “Two full nights of brining in the
refrigerator, flipping the bag over on the second day.”
Adrian Giese does a 12-hour wet brine with brown sugar, kosher salt, parsley, sage,
and thyme.
Phil Kastel, vice president of culinary and executive chef for The Grill on the Alley
restaurants (thegrill.com), is a huge fan of dry brining. He concocts a dry rub of salt,
pepper, sugar, lemon zest, pink peppercorns, bay leaf, and oregano. “I put everything
into a mortar and pestle, and I smoosh it all together,” he says. He rubs the mixture on
his turkey, leaves it on 6 to 8 hours, then wipes everything off the next morning to
make sure there isn’t too much salt.
Carrot Toppers
Color Theory In fall, carrots appear in
farmers’ markets in a rainbow of colors,
says 805 Living contributor Brigit Binns,
a cookbook author and co-owner of
Refugio Paso Robles (refugiopasorobles.
com), where she teaches cooking classes.
“Choose from traditional orange,
glorious yellow, dramatic purple, or pale
white,” she says. “Or mix it up.” The
visual interest pays off with very subtle
differences in flavor.
Take the Plunge For an appetizer, serve
petite carrots with a purchased aioli
livened up with a touch of sweet, gentle
heat. Stir in a pinch of piment d’Espelette
(dried, ground chilies from the Basque
region of France), suggests chef Clark
Staub, owner of Full of Life Flatbread
(fulloflifefoods.com) in Los Alamos.
Whole in Thyme “Served whole and
tender, carrots add a rustic feel to any
repast,” Binns says. She suggests peeling
whole carrots and simmering them in
salted water for about 8 minutes, until
just tender. Drain well, then shock
carrots in ice water, she says. Melt
1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon
olive oil in a pan and add carrots and a
few sprigs of fresh thyme. Sauté over low
heat until carrots are golden. Season with
salt and pepper to taste.
Divide and Conquer Kastel likes to order a disassembled turkey from the butcher, so
he can give the dark meat a head start in the oven. “That gives you even cooking and
perfectly moist turkey,” he says. “I buy my turkey from Whole Foods, and when I place
my order I ask the butcher to disassemble the leg and thigh, and they have it ready for
me. I’ll roast my legs and thighs first, for a good 45 minutes, and then I add my breast.”
Bag the Bird “I like to use the bag, I feel like it makes the most juicy turkey,” says Giese
of the roasting bags sold in supermarkets around holiday time. “It almost self-bastes the
turkey,” he says, explaining that the moisture from the turkey rises to the top of the bag
and continually drips back down over the bird. “The last 10 to 15 minutes, I do a low broil
to get the skin crispy on the outside.” Cut the bag open with scissors to expose the skin,
taking care to avoid the escaping steam, and make sure the turkey sits low in the oven as
it broils. “It also helps you make a gravy at the bottom of the bag,” he says. Put celery,
carrots, onion, and fresh herbs in with the turkey. When it’s done, transfer the juices
from the bottom of the bag to a small pot. Add a roux (a browned mixture of butter and
flour) to make gravy.
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Pie Tricks
Quite a few of our chefs advocate for keeping dessert
simple, like serving pie with homemade whipped cream or a
good vanilla ice cream. “When you’re eating pie, you don’t
need a lot of extra flavors,” says Renee Linn, creator of pie
recipes for Linn’s Fruit Bin (linnsfruitbin.com) in Cambria.
“I love McConnell’s Vanilla Bean ice cream—McConnell’s
is absolutely the best. It has very high butterfat content. It
doesn’t have a ton of air whipped into it.”
If serving whipped cream, skip the can, and make it
from scratch. “I like to sweeten my whipped cream with
just a touch of honey because that actually gives it more
body,” says Linn. And then whip in some cinnamon and a
pinch of nutmeg.
Want to take it up a notch? Try these ideas:
The key to great mashed potatoes is to really salt the cooking water,
according to Kastel. “The water should taste like the sea, because that’s
your only chance to season and penetrate the potato when cooking,” he
says. After draining the boiled potatoes, let them sit in the colander for
5 minutes before mashing them, he advises. “The steam is still escaping
from the potato,” he says. “If you mash them right away, your mashed
potatoes can become watery.”
What kind of potato is best? Depends on whom you ask. “We like to
use a Yukon gold potato. It seems to be less starchy and has more of a
nice buttery flavor,” says Kastel. Giese favors russets because they are
starchy, but he echoes the sogginess warning: “Boil them in water, but
don’t cut them up too small.”
The other trick, according to Kastel, is to heat the butter, cream, and
any other add-ins before mixing them into the potatoes—this helps keep
the dish warm. “We’ll actually heat up our cream in a little pot, put some
butter in there, and whatever seasoning we’re using—roasted garlic, salt,
pepper, whatever it is.”
Want to try something a little different this year? Consider these
tricked-out variations:
Lobster Mashed Potatoes It’s easy to dress up classic mashed potatoes
with lobster, says Kastel. “You can get cooked lobster meat from Whole
Foods,” he says, “and then sauté or heat it up in a little bit of butter
because, again, you want to keep the lobster the same temperature as the
mashed potatoes.” Fold the lobster into the mashed potatoes along with
some chopped chives. Plan on at least 4 ounces of lobster per person.
Goat Cheese and Chives Soft goat cheese would be really nice because
it’s creamy and would melt into the potatoes, notes Kastel. “Chives would
be great with goat cheese as well,” he adds.
Spinach and Nutmeg Fresh spinach and a touch of nutmeg is an
awesome combination in mashed potatoes, Kastel says. To 8 servings of
potatoes, add a very light grating of fresh nutmeg to the warmed cream
and butter, and mash in. Then fold in a bag of prewashed baby spinach
and let the heat of the potatoes wilt the leaves.
The Italian Job In the Morello household, mashed potatoes get flavored
with vegetable broth, dried Sicilian oregano, thyme, and rosemary, onion
powder, freshly minced garlic, Sicilian sea salt, white pepper, and butter,
says Elaine Andersen Morello. Garnish with chopped fresh Italian parsley.
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Dress Up Pecan Pie With Bacon or Coconut For pecan pie,
capitalize on the bacon trend, suggests Brandi McClellanToback, pastry chef at Lido at Dolphin Bay (thedolphinbay.
com/lido) in Pismo Beach. “Use a little five-claw star tip to
make 8 to 12 whipped cream rosettes around the edges of
the pie, then crumble crispy bacon over the top.” Just make
sure the bacon is very crispy. Or take some inspiration from
German chocolate cake, and top a pecan pie with lightly
toasted coconut flakes. “Those big coconut flakes are just
gorgeous for presentation,” she says.
Pumpkin Picker-Uppers McClellan-Toback suggests
garnishing a pumpkin pie with crumbled pumpkin-seed
brittle or any nut or seed brittle. At Linn’s, pumpkin pies are
garnished with a little piecrust leaf (cut from pie dough with
a leaf-shaped cookie cutter) and a handful of Craisins. Add
to that some good whipped cream.
Sky-High Apple Pie McClellan-Toback likes to use
homemade apple chips to add visual interest to the allAmerican classic. Cut an apple into paper-thin slices with
a mandoline, taking care to pop out the seeds with a paring
knife while retaining the full shape of each slice. Soak the
slices in lemon water for a few minutes. Arrange the slices
on a parchment-lined sheet and bake at 200°F for about
an hour.
They’re done if they pull easily off of the parchment, she
says. “If you do them right, they should be nice and crisp,
and the seed casings in the center make a pretty star shape.
You can do whipped cream rosettes around the edges of the
pie, and stand the apple chips in the rosettes to get some
height and color on top of the pie.” 
Vintage tabletop props courtesy of Agoura Antique Mart.
OPPOSITE AND THIS PAGE: GARY MOSS
Next-Level Mashed Potatoes
Whip Up a Mascarpone Topping Giese suggests going
all-in on richness with an amaretto- and nutmeg-flavored
mascarpone cream. Whip two 6- to 8-ounce tubs of
mascarpone cheese in a standing mixer using the paddle
attachment, then add 2 tablespoons of amaretto and a
light sprinkling of nutmeg. Sweeten to taste with powdered
sugar. “That way, you won’t have that graininess that you
get from granulated sugar,” Giese notes.
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